Indicating device



May 29, 1934. t A KNO-rz 1,960,636

INDICATING DEVICE Filed July 23, 1951 Patented May 29, 1934 i?. TATES Application July 23, 1931, Serial No. 552,762 In Austria May l1, 1931 1 Claim.

invention relates to indicating devices for use in connection with adding machine and registering tills with a lamp panel for the illumination of numerals associated with the setting keys 5 (setting levers), and has for its object to reduce the height oi the lamp panel and to facilitate the reading oi 'the numbers displayed on the inicating device. In order to be able to indicate any number capable of being set on a keyboard l0 comprising, ior example, four digit denominau tions oi ten keys each (for the numerals 0 to 9), it has hitherto been necessary to provide forty lamps with the appropriate showing numerals arranged in four adjacent rows each which con- 5 tains ten numerals one above the other. Apart from the considerable over-all height oi the indicator conditioned oy this type of construction, the individual digits, more particularly when they far apart in the digit sequence, ci any particnlar number indicated appear at very different levels, which fact is prejudicial to the easy and rapid reading of the numbers displayed on the indicating device.

ln accordance with the present invention, this drawhacl; obviated by arranging adjacent nu morals (e and l, 2 and 3, e and 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 9) in juxtaposed pairs in five equal and superimposed groups, whereas with the known ty e of construction, there are only ten four-ligure nurnhers for which. the digits appear in a straight hori- Zonta-l row, with ouregure machi e and the arrangement of the numerals in there are eighty such numbers. With all other numH hers there are diilerences in level between the digits, hut these difierences are reduced 'oy haii or more as compared with the known types of indicating device for the purpose concerned. The entire indicating device is thus extended as to its breadth to the advantage of the easier and more rapid reading of the numbers displayed.

in the drawing, the invention is diagrammatically illustrated by way of example in connection with a four-ngure adding machine.

Figure l shows a front elevation oi the roachine adapted for use with this indicating de- Vice;

Figure 2 is a face View partly broken away oi the indicating device showing the improved arrangement in accordance with the present invention.

Referring to Fig. l, the setting mechanism of the machine 2 has tour adjacent rows or" ten keys 3 each, these keys sending for the numerals 0 to 9 and thus has four digit denominations. Each of the individual key stems is provided in known Lllt manner with contacts for the closing of a current circuit for a lamp, one such arrangement being disclosed in the patent to C. J. Cassidy, No.

1,091,8l0. The lamps 9 themselves are accommodated in the compartments of a casing ll) which has a iront wall ll of ground glass, and which, if desired, can be set up at a distance from the machine.

This wall, preferably has digit indications l2, visible when the respective lamps are lighted.

Corresponding to the four digit denornn mations of machine, it was heretofore the practice to provide four adjacent rows, each containing ten lamps placed one above the other. The figures displayed on the ground glass plate were required to co the present device.

rrespond to the denotation of UUnig keys connected therewith as in the the indicating mechanism, according to the present invention, (see Fig. 2), the forty nui rais are arranged in eight adjacent rows of n/c each, each horizontal row containinU four pairs of consecutive numerals.

Ii the second horisontal row from the bottom be considered, the numerals ior the indication oi the tour figure nuinlia may read 22, 23; 22, 32; and 22, 33;"

22; 32, 23, and

so forth, in a horizontal row although at varying This however, not unpleasantly noticeable, especially ii a separating line he provided between the figures for the and the (dollars and cents). For other distances apart.

nui rs the dille nce in level between the inditions.

l claim:

An indicator panel for electrically displaying the figures of adding machines and the like and including a face plate provided with digital ngures of unlike translucency to the remainder of the plate, said pla-te having the digital figures from 0 to 9 arranged in pairs of vertical rows with the odd digits arranged consecutively in one row and the Zero and even digits arranged consecutively in the adjacent row whereby each row is but ve digits high, and an electric lamp behind each digit.

ALOIS KNOTZ. 

